We're Turning 5

posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:00 AM

5 months old, that is. I can't be sure precisely on that. I am looking over some old emails that Terry and I were sending back and forth in July and August of last year and I see that we had been discussing starting some sort of "open source" 3d art project since mid-July or so. The closest I can get to an official date is the first post on forum on August 11. Well, just for the sake of simplicity, I'm gonna call the official birth date of the cooperative as August 1, 2005. I thought that today, on the occasion of the launch of this blog, would be a good time to do something I will rarely do here -- and that is look back on the path we've tread. It's only been five months, but there has been so much progress and development here that it feels like it could have been five years ago that we formed this little idea. In a way, I have been doing this for years. What I hope to accomplish in my time on this project is based on ideas that have percolating for over 15 years. Let me just take a moment to fill you in on where we've been and later this week I will let you know some about where I am going personally and the directions I hope this coop can grow. This is going to end up being more about me than any official party-line lowpolycoop propaganda, so stick with me if you are into that sort of thing.

Terry and I met, oh, about a year ago, while working together on a game project. Both of us shared a love for modelling with Blender and, over time, discovered that we both might want to contribute to work that would be freely available to the indie game development community at large. I, for one, wanted to help start this coop as a way to get my work out there and into the hands of people that would need it the most. We tried a number of different ways of working at first, and I'm sure we as a group will always continue to try new things, but the method that stuck for me was in creating free environment models, working towards producing some sort of cohesive content pack down the line. I pounded away at this and have been pounding it senseless ever since.

I know I am going to get into this over and over again as this blog progresses, but I do want to give a little insight into why I am doing this personally. I mean, what is in it for me, giving my work away for free? Well, I have been working on game and art projects for free for a long long time. It might even be likely that I have been doing this longer than some of you have been alive. Creating 3D art for games is still new for me -- I've been at it maybe 5 years here and there -- but I have been deeply involved in various group artistic pursuits for well over 15 years. I have always gained a satisfaction from creating art and having people see it. At a certain level, it does not matter whether I make money at it or achieve fame and adulation. At times I have chased the money, starting businesses and looking for jobs and I have met with success in some of the directions I have followed. I currently work as a graphic designer, a goal which seemed far off 15 years ago when I was working in a research lab and drawing comics after work. And that's great... up to a certain point. I've long wanted to create games as an artist and I still do. Whether that means working in a studio full time, hacking away at a hobby project at night or somewhere in between is really just a matter of timing, time and short-term money needs. I can get my art on in a lot of different ways. And right now, and for the next couple of years, creating projects and working in teams with achievable goals is the way I want to proceed. Mostly, I want to create game art and I want people to see it. I want to grow as an artist and I want to work with people that will help me grow. Money wouldn't hurt, of course, because it would allow me to get closer to my goal of doing this during more of my waking hours, but it is not the driving force for me here. It is part of my overall plan to make money either here with the coop or somewhere else doing something simlar and at some point I will talk to you at length about how I believe that providing stuff to the community for free is not the same as working for free. There are huge benefits to doing what we do here and a year from now I hope to be able to again look back and show clearly what those have been.

For now, I just want to say, I am doing this because I love it. It is fun. You should see the sparkle in my eyes when a developer sends me a screenshot with one of my models in game. You should see me sprawled out on the couch at 3am mumbling "one more tweak on that texture". You should see me hunched over my iBook on the train every morning. You should see me running for the bathroom because I forgot to pee while I was working. You should see me when I fall off my skateboard and I check the computer before I check to see if my elbow is broken. You get the picture.

I surprised myself when I recently looked back and counted the amount of work I had done over the first few months on this project. To date, I have created over 35 models, some of which I have completed and released on the forums. My work, a lot still in the work-in-progress stage even, has been downloaded over 50 times now and I have gotten great feedback and encouragement from people whose work I greatly respect. It's a real mix of emotions for me. I'm excited to have my work seen by more people, I'm more than a bit scared of what people will think of me and my skills, and way more than a bit humbled by the enthusiasm great artists have shown in wanting to work together with me on something I feel so passionately about. If nothing else comes of the project, this coop, this blog, this forum, or this site I will be thankful for the opportunity to meet and work with the people in the indie community. Just within the last month, a few artists have joined in the fun and have already done almost as much work as I did the first four months -- something that really excites me about the prospects for the coming year.

If you haven't visited the forums yet, please have a look around. There's a lot there. I know it can be hard to pick through something so dense and deep. The forum is very work-centric and, although it is organized pretty cleanly, there aren't really many signposts to guide you along the way. It's the gearheads hanging out in the garage, talking shop mostly. That's a huge reason why I am kick-starting this blog, to provide a showroom that is flexible and accessible. Also, now that a few other artists have jumped in and started producing some great work, the flow of new art has greatly increased. I felt that new and casual visitors may need someone to sift through all the information there and make nice, pretty little maps. The forums will still exist. That's where all the development work and communication will happen, and you are welcome to root around in it and see the growth of this project moment by moment. It could be quite educational if you are contemplating something similar. But for those of you who just want some updates on our progress and to get a little peek into the reasons why we do what we do, then visit here every week or so. I'll try to keep it light.

I am actually going to end this first post of looking back with a taste of looking forward. 2006 is a year so full of new territory, not the least of which is the expected arrival of my third child. I am really jazzed about the prospect of doing some great work with some great people.

This first week of the Low Poly Cooperative blog will be jam-packed with goodness. I will fill you in on some of what I am hoping for in the coming year, show you what we've been up to, and end the week with some exciting news. See you then. On to aught-six and the creation of the Thousander Club.

Stay free.

~shs~